African American Child Rearing Practices

The reviewed studies are covered in two broad categories: (1) research conducted on the effects of African-American mothers' child-rearing practices on their children's achievement irrespective of gender (the bulk of the existing research in the field); and (2) research related to differential child-rearing practices associated with differences in children's gender.

There have been a number of studies that examined those child-rearing practices of black mothers that are associated with strong achievement levels in children. One child-rearing characteristic that has been found to affect achievement is an interactive parenting style in which there is a good deal of verbal exchange between mothers and their children; this finding was reported by Blumenthal (1985) who found that cognitive development and subsequent school achievement in black children was highest when mothers had a verbally interactive style of parenting with their children.

In another study, Tassopulos (1982) conducted a regressional analyses of data collected to determine the relative influence of specific maternal variables and the family socioeconomic status (SES) on black children's reading achieveme

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(8) Strong expectations from mother and teachers that the children would be successful; and (9) Boys being provided with job responsibilities in the home from age eight and worked a part-time job as a teenager. African-American mothers' child-rearing patterns as they are influenced by racism was examined by Richardson (1981) using interview methods with 62 black mothers. Results indicated that educational status alone did not account for most of the variations in child-rearing patterns regarding racism. The mother's educational status combined with the racial characteristics of her educational environment acted as predictors of her perceptions of racism and the type of blame orientation she used. The findings were said to suggest that mothers who perceive their own influence on social realities convey a sense of self-determination to their children. This, in turn, was said to foster achievement in children. Racism in relation to parenting style and academic achievement was also examined in a study conducted by Marshall (1995). In the research, ethnic socialization (ES) was examined using a sample of 58 African American mothers and their children (aged 920 years) who attended predominantly White schools. Mothers comple
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